Pol to sue OPM over Obamacare

Sen. Ron Johnson plans to file a lawsuit Monday against the Office of Personnel Management over its policy permitting lawmakers and Hill staff to receive Obamacare subsidies for their health plans.

The Wisconsin Republican and other opponents of the policy say that the OPM decision to allow the government to fund a portion of members’ and staffers’ health insurance is not authorized in the text of the Affordable Care Act.

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Johnson has scheduled a news conference for 12:15 p.m. Monday on Capital Hill to discuss the suit. He will appear with Paul Clement, a high-profile attorney and former U.S. solicitor general who represented 26 states in their lawsuit against Obamacare’s individual mandate. Clement, an appellate lawyer, is supporting Johnson for possible appeals. Rick Esenberg, founder and president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, will be his lead attorney.

Johnson will first have to prove that he is being hurt by the policy and so has standing to sue. An aide told POLITICO on Sunday that the senator will argue that the policy forces him to comply with a rule that he believes is illegal. He also believes the policy harms his relationship with constituents because it gives him and other congressional employees special treatment through government subsidies regardless of income levels.

Finally, the aide said, Johnson will contend that OPM’s decision created an administrative burden in forcing him to determine which staff qualified as “official” office employees who were required to seek health coverage through one of the new Obamacare exchanges. (Unofficial employees could stay on the federal health plan.)

“In this case, members of Congress now are not being held to the letter of the law, and that creates an alienation. It creates a wedge between a member of Congress and their constituents,” Johnson told the Oshkosh Northwestern late last week.